Snowmen invade Somerset home

• Image

Rose McVitty stands in front of a wall of snowmen cookie jars, some that she has turned into a nativity scene, in one room of their rural Somerset home.

Talk about it

We might not get a white Christmas this year. But at Rose McVitty’s house, there are snowmen wherever you turn.

McVitty began to collect snowmen about 15 years ago. Her collection has snowballed to where she estimates she now has more than 560 different snowmen in a cascade of sizes, shapes and colors.

Some of her snowmen don’t need Frosty’s magic hat to sing and dance. She probably has 50 or more that sing a variety of Christmas songs or contain music boxes that play tunes. She has one snowman that moves around her kitchen on skis. She has another that rides a tricycle around in circles. And if you open her refrigerator, there’s a snowman inside that serenades you. She has many more that light up.

There are so many snowmen that McVitty has set up theme areas within her rural Somerset home. Cookie jars and the snowmen that dance and move monopolize the kitchen and dining room. In one room, there are snowmen with a patriotic theme. In another corner of the room, there’s a wall display of more snowmen, some of them arranged and decorated into a nativity scene. One of her favorite displays is her collection of large Hallmark snowmen that dance and play music.

To complete the Christmas scenario, the McVittys have an expansive Christmas tree in their living room. McVitty and her daughter, Angie, flocked the tree with seven cans of spray snow to give it a snowy glow. The tree is covered with white snowflake and snowball ornaments.

McVitty estimated that “around 100” of the snowmen are creations she made at her business, Rosebud Ceramics, Balloons and Cakes. She said most of the snowmen she adds now come to her as gifts from family and friends.

Rose and Angie started bringing out the snowmen from storage in late October so Rose could begin planning the displays. All the snowmen will go back in storage the week after Christmas. Two rooms of their house are dedicated to storing the snowmen the rest of the year.

Rose said she enjoys collecting the snowmen because of the creativity it takes to produce so many different styles. None of her snowmen are the same. She has snowmen measuring spoons and cups, mugs, silverware and chair covers. Their bathroom even has a snowman clock and toilet paper holder.

Many of her cookie jars are made of clear glass and each of them gets filled with cookies each Christmas.

The cookie making became a family event this year. Rose was joined by her two daughters, two nieces and granddaughter in making the “dozens and dozens” of Christmas cookies to fill the jars. She said one of the biggest parts of the job was clearing out all of the snowmen from the kitchen so they had room to bake the cookies. She said it was so much fun, she hopes to make the cookie baking day an annual event.

Rose’s husband, Don, seems resigned to sharing his house with snowmen for several months each winter. When asked about his opinion of the snowmen, Don grinned and said “Whatever trips her trigger.”

Meanwhile Rose goes on pointing out areas of the house where there are bare walls that could easily be filled with more snowmen.

“As long as it’s a snowman or a snowflake, it works,” she said.

Tags: lifestyle, home, somerset